Give students the means to defend themselves

Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2008

I do not claim to have all of the answers in the security field, but I do have some relevant experience, having served four years in the U.S. Secret Service's Vice Presidential Protective Division and eight years as assistant to the special agent in charge with the Protection Squad in the Secret Service's Atlanta field office. I'm fully retired now, and am involved in no business venture. I'm sending this nonpolitical "open letter" to collegiate security personnel out of genuine, heartfelt safety concerns.

I'm aware of the tremendous burden you carry in trying to protect your colleges and universities as other public safety officials do their schools, malls, churches and other facilities. I know you're doing everything in your power to improve campus security: requesting more police officers, installing security systems, alert systems, lockdown procedures, awareness seminars, and recognition of and counseling for disturbed students, to name just a few.

However, I also believe colleges and universities are unique, for two reasons.

First, they are very high-profile, big-name targets for a lone gunman or for terrorists. Second, the great, great majority have been declared "gun-free zones," which unfortunately doesn't prevent criminals, the mentally disturbed, mass murderers or terrorists from bringing guns to your campus.

Laws that keep weapons off of higher-education campuses are a deterrent only to honest, law-abiding citizens. Those who declare a "gun-free zone" have a moral and legal obligation to make it so, but they simply do not possess the "means" to actually accomplish that goal. I believe that is an unconscionable affront to those who are defenseless.

That said, I sadly fear that dark episodes in our nation's history such as the Virginia Tech shootings are not over, and may just be getting started. My main concern is that when a large group of students find themselves trapped in a classroom with an active shooter killing them at random, all of the best, most well-intentioned, high-budget efforts at security are of no use to them. When all of your best efforts have been thwarted, students are confronted with the choices of hiding under a desk, feigning death, begging for mercy or rushing an armed attacker.

The real question at that moment is: What is the "security plan" when students need it most, when it has become a matter of life and death and they are defenseless because police officers are still seconds or even minutes away?

With that in mind, I ask you to take steps to legally and administratively adopt these or similar additional security measures:

Develop an ongoing course regarding campus security for elective credit. The course should cover all aspects of campus security and should include firearms safety, qualification, concealed carry methods, use of force law and other relevant issues.

Restrict the course to students over 21 (including military veterans and former police officers) who possess valid carry permits. Include faculty, staff, administrators, maintenance personnel and others who also possess valid carry permits.

Consider having the course meet the requirements for certification as a "private security officer" under the laws of your state.

Allow those students who successfully pass the course to carry on campus. Annual requalification is certainly an option.

Set up an identification system should an incident occur. (Note: This is not an insurmountable issue. Uniformed police officers confront undercover, off-duty and retired local, state and federal officers every day).

Adoption of these or similar procedures or policies will, over time, provide a cadre of trained, responsible individuals who can be the first line of defense in life-or-death situations and who will serve as an additional deterrent to those who would bring evil to your campus.

I realize this is a politically charged issue where emotion often takes precedence over reason, logic and facts. I also realize those of you who may openly or secretly agree with me will have strong opposition. I seek only to help students, faculty and others when they are at their most vulnerable - when they are being killed with no means to resist. We all know it can happen again.

In closing, I sincerely hope my efforts will be at least partially successful. Will my suggestion save every life? No. But I believe it will save many, and that is worth the effort of this letter.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of this piece - an open letter to public safety directors at institutions of higher education - is a resident of the metropolitan Atlanta community of Johns Creek. A 1972 graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in business administration, he served in the Marine Corps as a scout-sniper in Vietnam in 1967-68. He worked with the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division, and spent 27 years with the U.S. Secret Service and four years with the Federal Air Marshal Service.